The Dorrington Hotel: Breakfast, History, and a Bar Named After an Oil Change New
I went to Dorrington for scrambled eggs. I left with a full tour of an 1880s hotel, a peek inside an A-frame cottage you can't book online yet, and a very fun story from the owner's daughter. This is why I never say no to breakfast.
Here's how it happened. My brother and sister-in-law have a vacation home in Arnold, which means I'm lucky enough to spend a fair amount of time on this stretch of Highway 4 in the Sierra foothills. They'd noticed a sign at the Dorrington Hotel announcing it was now serving breakfast, so we drove the ten minutes east to check it out.
Dorrington is tiny. The 2020 census counted 519 people, and the town is essentially the hotel, the post office attached to it, a bar called the Lube Room Saloon, and homes tucked into the trees. That's not a complaint. That's the appeal.
Breakfast in the parlor
The hotel is a quaint multi-story building with a front porch, right on Highway 4. The porch has rocking chairs and several tables draped in lace tablecloths, and walking up the steps feels like arriving at a nice hotel dining room in about 1885. Like when Ma and Pa Ingalls went to “the big city” for their anniversary.
Inside, the old gathering room has been converted into the breakfast dining room. There's one long table that seats maybe twelve, a potbelly stove in the corner against a cobblestone hearth, an old record player, a player piano I did not touch (much) out of consideration for everyone eating, and wallpaper. So much wallpaper. Remember the wallpaper. It comes back.
My favorite table was built from an antique Singer sewing machine base. You can still see the wrought iron legs and the foot treadle underneath.
The breakfast itself was good, with a decent menu of options. I had sausage links and scrambled eggs with rye toast, and I swapped the potatoes for fruit for an extra three dollars. Normally I resent paying extra for fruit on principle. This fruit was perfect, heavy on the berries, and I withdraw my objection. Round of applause, please, for how health-conscious I was. I'd like it noted in the record, next to the sausage, which is now canceled out by the fruit.
The tour I didn't plan on
During the meal I got to talking with our waitress, Brianna, and mentioned my travel blog. It turned out she's the daughter of one of the owners. Her family bought the hotel in 2015 and has been refurbishing it ever since. When she finished up her tables, she offered to walk us through the whole place. I said yes before she got to the end of the sentence.
Off the little reception lobby (there's a window that reads “Registration,” with old-time furniture and, yes, more wallpaper) they're converting one downstairs room into an additional guest room. Upstairs are the six currently available rooms, and they are lovely! Lace curtains, metal-frame beds with white duvets, bureaus topped with the washbasin-and-pitcher sets people actually used before indoor plumbing, and period wallpaper. I told you it comes back.
No TVs. You will survive this. The six rooms share two full bathrooms, each with a shower-tub combination, plus two half baths downstairs. None of the rooms are en suite, which is worth knowing before you book. It's part of the deal when the building predates the concept.
Rooms go for $200 a night, or you can rent the entire hotel for $900 a night. The whole-hotel option is popular for weddings, which are held on the big lawn out back, and honestly the logistics are hard to beat: the wedding party stays in the charming hotel building, and the bride and groom take the log cabin cottage next door (also $200 a night). Nobody drives. Everyone stumbles home across the same lawn.
A hotel with a long history
This property has been a stopping place since the Gold Rush era. It started as Cold Spring Ranch, named for the natural spring in the meadow, and served as a stagecoach stop and toll station on the Big Trees-Carson Valley road, hosting miners, cattlemen, and travelers headed up to see the giant sequoias. Legend has it Mark Twain drank from the spring. Actually legend has it Mark Twain did a lot of things in this part of California, but I choose to believe this one.
John Gardner and his wife Rebecca homesteaded the property in 1868. Rebecca had come out from Scotland, and when the post office was established in 1902 and the town needed a name, her maiden name won: Dorrington. Somewhere in the negotiations, a woman got a whole town named after her. I'd love the transcript. The original hotel burned down (Brianna told us fire has claimed buildings here more than once) and the current building went up in the 1880s, right across the road from where the first one stood.
Rebecca, according to local lore, never really left, and Brianna tells the stories better than I can retell them. My favorite: on Brianna's wedding day she was in the hotel shower and saw a figure through the frosted glass. She assumed it was a bridesmaid and asked for a towel. No answer. Asked again. Nothing. When she opened the door, the bathroom was empty, and so was the rest of the hotel. Her entire wedding party had slipped out to rehearse a surprise dance. I want to be clear that the ghost is not the upsetting part of that story. The upsetting part is being abandoned in a bathroom with no towel on your wedding day.
Brianna shrugged the whole thing off. It's odd, she said, but it has never felt scary. She figures Rebecca is just keeping an eye on the place. Having seen how carefully this family is restoring it, I'd say Rebecca has nothing to worry about.
The A-frame cottages across the road
Here's the part I'm most excited about. The family also bought the property directly across Highway 4: four A-frame cottages arranged around an open field. They've been remodeling them to rent, and we got to see inside one.
It's adorable, and I'm using that word with precision. A queen bed, two comfy chairs facing a fireplace with a TV mounted above, a little kitchen in back with a retro-style refrigerator and a kitchen table, and a full bathroom with a shower.
Steep stairs climb into the peak of the A, where a loft with twin beds overlooks the main room and a window frames the surrounding mountains. My knees made noises like a goat chewing a tin can full of celery when I went up and down those stairs, but that was probably a fluke.
If you came up in winter with kids, they could build snowmen in the field while you watched from beside the fire. I have given this more thought than the situation required. I have also mentally assigned everyone a cottage.
The cottages haven't been publicized yet, so there's no online booking. For now, you have to call the hotel directly to ask about them. I'll update this post once they're bookable online.
The Lube Room Saloon
To the right of the hotel sits the Lube Room Saloon, and no, I did not make up that name. The building spent part of the 1970s as a garage and lube station, and when it became a bar in 1977, the name stuck. I respect a business that stays committed to its original signage.
The Lube Room is the kind of bar where you spend the first twenty minutes just looking up. Memorabilia hangs from every ceiling beam and wall, all of it donated by customers over the decades, including a sled somebody rode there in the '80s and simply never came back for. Forty years is a long time to commit to a bit. There's a pool table, some video games, and a large back deck lined with moose heads and other taxidermy, which is mildly unsettling if you think about it too hard, so I recommend not doing that. What it does communicate, clearly, is that you are no longer in the city.
Out back is a big lawn with a full concert stage where they host live music. Locals bring blankets and lawn chairs, leave a patch of grass open as a dance floor, and there's a full bar on the side of the field so nobody has to walk far for a refill. Somebody thought that through, and I'd like to thank them. The restaurant serves food daily and there's a full bar inside too. Check their events page or Facebook for the current music lineup.
The Details
The Dorrington Hotel 3431 Highway 4, Dorrington, CA (about 10 minutes east of Arnold) Rooms: $200/night (6 rooms, shared bathrooms) | Full hotel buyout: $900/night | Log cabin cottage: $200/night A-frame cottages: not yet bookable online; call the hotel to inquire (209) 795-5800. Website: thedorringtonhotel.com
The Lube Room Saloon Next to the hotel and post office Kitchen: Sun-Thu 11am-8pm, Fri-Sat 11am-9pm Bar: Sun-Wed 11am-9pm, Thu-Sat 11am-1:30am Phone: (209) 795-2118 Website: theluberoom.com
Never fear – I'll update this post when the A-frame cottages open for online booking.
